Taj Pamodzi Hotel review

The Taj Pamodzi is a good airport stop-over with comfortable rooms and a decent restaurant. However the promised "transfers" to the hotel from the airport are non-existent. To get to the hotel we had to rely on the bus from the Intercontinental Hotel (whilst avoiding what appeared the very dodgy attentions of our airline Proflight - whose staff had a "friend" who was prepared to taxi us to the hotel - at a cost of course).

The promised free transfer in the other direction (from the hotel back to the airport) consisted of a bus in the very very early hours of the morning. Instead we ended up paying for a ludicrously expensive taxi (arranged of course by the hotel - with the staff member who arranged it noticeably taking a cash payment from the taxi driver). I found this very very annoying.

For a holiday of this cost I would prefer to pay the cost of a pre-arranged private transfer - instead of feeling that we were at the mercy of rip-off merchants on the ground.

Taj Pamodzi Hotel review

Our flight from Mfuwe to Lusaka was about an hour and a half late, apparently an unexceptional occurrence. There was nobody to rendevous with as there had been on our arrival at Lusaka from London and the hotel transport did not appear at the designated location at the airport for over an hour. (We found this location on our own as there were no instructions in any information you had sent us.)

After an hour, I made representations to Zambian Airways to phone the hotel, which they did, and the transport arrived about 30 minutes later. Zambian Airways invited us to stay in there office until the minibus arrived. Zambian Airways were very helpful. At the hotel the check-in process was perfunctory and no explanation or apology as offered for the failure of the transport to show up.

On checking out we were presented with a bill and when we expalined we had handed in vouchers on check-in the bill was eventually rescinded with ill grace, the check out process lasted 15 minutes. There was only one service to the airport in the morning, at 5.30 am, therfore we arrived an hour too early for our check-in at the airport. For an alledged top class hotel the staff were surly and incommunicative and a complete contrast to the staff at all Norman Carr venues.

We do not know what caused the failure to pick us up at the airport. Should there have been someone to meet us? Were the hotel responsible for this? Our information from you was inadequate. Having been through many airports in Africa, S America and Asia, it is fortunate that Lusaka airport on a quite evening was not a threatening place. However had my wife been travelling alone it might not have felt so unintimidating. I would not recommend the Taj Pamodzi to anyone.

Taj Pamodzi Hotel review

Due to our flight problem we missed the shuttle from the airport to the hotel and had to take a taxi. The lady at the Information Desk at the airport as helpful and passed us to a Taxi Driver that she knew. The hotel quickly changed dollars into local currency to pay the driver.

Location was not any concern as we were there for one night. 30 minutes from hotel to airport isn't bad.

Room was good.

Unfortunately the steaks we ordered in the Grill were terrible! We ordered sirloin and I queried mine as it did not look like sirloin. I was assured it was and tried to eat it. It was tough! Dave's was full of gristle. We didn't have a chance to call anyone over, one of the servers at an adjacent table approached us. The Chef himself came out and offered replacements which we declined - too tired by then to be bothered, and after all the food we had eaten, not hungry enough. He offered dessert and Dave took him up on Cheese and Biscuits.

The Chef's explanation was that it was a new delivery of steak and that he would check it out. After pondering about the shape of the meat, I think that we had been served stewing or braisng steak! Full marks though to the observant server and the Chef.

The band was excellent, especially when they went into reggae mode. I had my "Delilah" moment on an Monday instead of a Friday. I might even let Chris Evans hear about it!

The transfer to the airport went well.

Didn't have time to try any of the facilities although our porter was enthusiastic in pointing them out.

Awful

This was by far the worst part of the trip. The hotel was 25+ K from the airport and they forgot to pick us up. We had to phone them to come and collect. This took about an hour. They tried to charge us for the room and once shown to the room moved us to another across the hall a quarter of an hour later. We could have been in the shower. The reason given was that the original room had a 'connecting room'. The room was identical in every way.

The room was really quite small and in both cases only set up for one person. When I queried if it was a 'superior' was told that we had been upgraded to an 'executive'! The mini bar was empty in both cases. This room was also noisy at night, I think this was caused by air conditioning units below.

The staff were generally surly and unhelpful particularly in the Business centre which we used to book our flight seats. We were ignored at bthe bar until I made a point of waving at the staff standing around doing nothing. In the resturant we were told a table would be ready in 10 mins but had to wait at least an hour.We made it clear that if there was to be a wait we would use one of their other resturants. Later we ordered a nightcap and were given a choice of whiskys. We chose Jamesons. The drink provided was clearly scotch which is much darker than Irish. We complained but were presented with the bttle of Jamesons which they perported to have used by the bar manager. Being quite tired and frustrated by how we accepted the drink as scotch, paid £7.50 a shot and the waitress then tried to take the drinks away! We retired to the room with the drink.

We had already enquired about the transfer to the airport and were told that the earliest trip was 5.30 for our flight at 8.55 but breakfast would be available from 5.00 am. At 5.05 we turned up for breakfast to find the room in darkness. We found a waitior who kindly provided us with coffee and toast. This was the only 'good' service we received.

We were then asked to check out and were again given a bill. After much palavar they agreed we had paid but had to ask if everything was OK. It was truly an awful experience and if this is what international hotels are like, give me bush camps every time!

We took this up with the manager at the Taj Pamodzi hotel. He asked us first to convey his apologies to these clients, and was dismayed to hear about the service they had encountered. As a result of this (and a few other negative feedbacks) the management have undertaken to retrain each department to ensure that errors like this are avoided in the future. We will be keeping a sharp eye on this but we are encouraged to hear that these issues are being taken seriously.

The Firefinches from Kent

Arrived on: 31-Mar-2008 Stayed for: 1 nights

Overall:

Average

Location:

Average

Rooms:

Good

Service:

Terrible

Food:

Average

Taj Pamodzi Hotel review

The hotel itself was comfortable, but the staff on the front desk and in the cashier's office were totally incompetent, not bothering to communicate with each other (or listening to their guests) and then trying to charge us for the room which had already been paid for.

Staff training will need to be given to ensure that the sort of welcome and stay that people would expect at this class of hotel is available all the time. We did not get breakfast because we had to leave at 5:30 to get to the airport for the flight to UK. There was only one transfer time and one vehicle. We cannot believe that the hotel only had one mini-bus to transport people to and from the airport.

The hotel restaurant was very poorly lit, but the the food was fine and the staff pleasant and tried to be helpful, unlike their colleagues on the reception desk. Overall the stay was something one could put up with for one night, but if we had not had such a good holiday prior to this overnight, we would have been even more annoyed.

One of the morning reception staff rudely insisted that we had to pay and that they did not have (could not find is the truth of the matter) the voucher we had given them on arrival, and which they attached to the paperwork. We just ignored her and her rudeness!

We are very sorry indeed that these clients received such disappointing service while at the Taj Pamodzi, and immediately contacted the hotel about their issues.

The hotel’s general manager, Anand, replied to us – apologising profusely. He assured us that they are taking these comments very seriously, and noted that they had already taken up the issue of poor lighting in the restaurant with their chief engineer – and had steps planned to “make sure that their cashiers, front desk staff and room reservations ensure that each booking is updated and checked thoroughly, with no billing confusion at check-out time.”

He also noted that although their breakfast buffet starts at 07.00 (which is too late if travellers are heading to the airport for an early BA flight to London), an earlier breakfast can be ordered through room service – and this is certainly something that our travellers should note for the future.

We remain very sorry that these guests didn’t have a good experience here. However, we are encouraged to see that the hotel’s management has taken on board these comments – and hope that it’ll help make a better experience for subsequent visitors.

Despite these issues, we don’t believe that there is another hotel in Lusaka which offers a service that is as convenient, and consistently better, than the Taj Pamodzi.

Mrs V - Cornwall - UK

Arrived on: 29-Feb-2008 Stayed for: 1 nights

Overall:

Excellent

Location:

Good

Rooms:

Excellent

Service:

Good

Food:

Good

Facilities:

Good

Excellent stopover hotel

You were correct in stessing the importance of physically booking the airport shuttle bus and its timing.

An acceptabl;e stop-over hotel

Drinks and food are expensive, but otherwise it was clean and confortable, and the staff were very courteous.

The shuttle bus was waiting for us on arrival, and having double-double checked the night before, it was also waiting for us next morning at 5.30am as requested. Allow at least 20 mins to checkout at that time of the morning! There seems to be lots of paperwork.

We have always believed that acting responsibly is the only way to approach tourism and we're one of
the few companies to hold AITO's original coveted 5-star status for responsible tourism. It's a lead
that others are now following.